Marvel
by Ky
Summary: After escaping from the Shinra Mansion, Zack and Cloud take a moment to enjoy the beauty of nature, as well as the beauty of freedom.
Genre: General/Drama
Rating: PG
Warnings: None, really.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis do not belong to me.
Notes: This fic was written during my family's trip to Olympic National Park.
A shattering of glass, red flashing lights, and sirens marked their escape. Zack swore he could hear the sirens now, but he convinced himself it was just paranoia. They were too far way from the old mansion now. The sirens were only to alert Hojo. If anyone else in Nibelheim heard them, it wouldn't be long before the atrocities committed in the Shinra Mansion were uncovered.
Zack paused to adjust Cloud's position against himself. The comatose blonde had begun to slip. Zack wrapped Cloud's arm tighter around his own shoulders.
For now, he was pretty sure they weren't being followed. The only sounds he heard were the chirps of insects and the movements of animals too small and quick to be humans pursuing them. His mako-enhanced eyesight, which allowed him superior night vision in the dark forest as well as increased distance, could not spot anything that might be a threat.
"We can take it slower now, Cloud," he told his unconscious friend. "Gotta keep our energy up."
They continued through the coniferous forest, Zack keeping an easy walking pace and a strong grip on Cloud. He heard a gurgling noise and realized it was his stomach. They would have to stop and eat soon. He could try to find some type of game animal and kill it with the Buster Sword… Unfortunately, the large weapon was not really built for stealth, and that would also involve leaving Cloud unattended. Maybe he could remember the types of edible plants and fungi that he'd had to learn when he was training to join SOLDIER… No, he'd never remember. Cloud had always been better at that sort of thing than he was. Zack had deemed it unimportant and immediately forgotten it. If it had been just him, hungry and alone in the woods, he might have taken a chance with some of the mushrooms clustered around a nearby tree. But it wasn't just him. Cloud was depending on him, too. And he couldn't afford to accidentally poison them both.
"We'll eat soon, I promise," he told Cloud. Ignoring his own pangs of hunger, Zack weaved between the thin, close-together tree trunks, careful not to let any branches or weeds hit Cloud or snag on his clothing. As they trekked downhill, Zack became aware of a loud noise coming from somewhere to his left. At first he thought someone was crashing through the forest towards them. But as he noticed the sound his own boots were making as he carried Cloud across the forest floor, he realized that couldn't be it. This was a different noise, though it was one he'd heard before.
"We're gonna take a little detour, if you don't mind." Zack hoisted his friend up higher on his shoulder again, and then began pushing through the trees, following the noise.
Before long, they reached a cliff with a steep drop-off. And just off to the left, Zack discovered the source of the sound. He had only seen a waterfall once before, on a SOLDIER mission off in another area. He watched, awestruck, as torrents of crystalline water tumbled over the edge of the rocky face and crashed into the blue-green river below, only to rise heavenward again as a fine white mist. Over time, rocks and boulders had been piled up along the edge by the force of the river to form an uneven bank. The natural beauty of the place was breath-taking.
Looking on from above, Zack had the sudden urge to get closer. His eyes traced a path down to the rocky bank. Picking up Cloud again, he proceeded downhill.
The forest sloped downward to meet the river. When they reached the edge of the trees, they were met with an outcropping of rocks and soil. If Zack hadn't been carrying Cloud, it would be easy to climb down the rocks, step-ladder-like. He had excellent balance and would probably manage it quickly. But the combined weight of himself and Cloud was more unbalanced. If they should fall, they would both probably be injured. So Zack decided to skip the outcropping and take a shortcut. He supported Cloud's head and shoulders with one muscular arm. The other went under Cloud's knees. "Hang on tight; we're going down," Zack informed him.
The blonde didn't respond. His arms hung limp.
Without further ado, Zack, clutching Cloud to his chest, jumped the last several feet down to the river bank, bending his knees to lessen the impact of the landing. Still feeling that incredible draw to the waterfall, he ran along the bank, picking his way across varying sizes of rocks, some wobbling or sliding under his feet.
He stopped at the edge and set Cloud down gently. The blond slumped forward, half-lidded, unseeing eyes pointed at the ground.
A wide grin split Zack's face as he stood before the great waterfall. The light breeze ruffled his and Cloud's hair, and Zack closed his eyes as the cool mist touched his skin.
All smiles, he knelt down next to Cloud, wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders. "This is it, my friend! This is it!"
It had been four years. Four years of needles and wires and tubes and mako and blood. Four years in a glass tank in an old basement, with barely room to move, subjected to dehumanizing experiments. A normal human would have lost hope. But Zack had not lost hope. And now, here he was. Here they were. He and Cloud had made it, escaped undetected.
Zack threw his head back, looked up at the blue sky and the fluffy white clouds, and laughed. Never had the sunlight seemed so beautiful, so lovingly warm on his face. The mist from the waterfall made him giddy, the water was clearer and colder and more alive than he'd ever believed. The sunlight danced and the river was a diamond and the trees above were emeralds. And Zack laughed. He licked the wet mist from his lips and knew that this was what freedom tasted like.
Zack laughed and whooped and waved his arms at the sky with such fervor that any onlooker would have thought he'd gone mad. "This is it, Cloud!" he shouted gleefully, hugging his comatose friend. "We're free!"
& & &
Hundreds of feet above them, a young woman turned the dial on her binoculars, throwing the details of the waterfall into sharp focus. She was mostly in shadow, but the spaces between tree leaves allowed the golden sunlight to speckle her dark blue suit and long, brown hair, tied up in a ponytail. Hanging from a strap over her shoulder was a shotgun with materia embedded in it. She swept her binoculars to the left, adjusted the zoom. With a grim smile, she flipped open a cellular phone and hit the speed dial.
"Target cited, sir. They're at the Nibel Falls."